Lazy summer day

Yesterday was one of those days. The days where you don't feel like doing anything. We set up our chairs and BBQ pit and worshiped the sun while we smoked a brisket. This isn't any brisket it was the largest one we've ever cooked 16.8 pounds! We also cooked up our boneless ribs.

Every hour we basted and injected the brisket with apple juice.

At lunch time the boneless ribs were ready and man where they tasty and juicy!

After lunch we headed back outside and I fixed up some of the leftover slush I made for my Hawaiian theme birthday. It taste similar to an old fashion party punch which uses lime sherbet and sprite.

Hawaiian Punch Slush

(Adapted from allrecipes.com submitted by Sharon)

INGREDIENTS
1 (14 ounce) can cream of coconut
1-1/2 (6 ounce) cans frozen lemonade concentrate
1/2 (46 fluid ounce) can unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 (750 milliliter) bottle vodka
1 liter lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

DIRECTIONS
In a plastic container combine cream of coconut, lemonade concentrate, pineapple juice and vodka. Mix well and store overnight in the freezer.
To serve, place 2 scoops in a glass, then fill the glass with lemon-lime soda.

I topped mine off with a little splash of coconut rum, but you can use additional vodka if you like to make it a little stronger. I also garnished mine with a cherry.

Our day of relaxing in the sun had come to an end around 4:30pm. The afternoon flair up decided to rain us out. The birds seemed to have a good time taking a shower. Guess our bird bath has nothing on the natural rain. We watched as the birds lifted their wings and leaned over so far that I thought they would fall off the fence. It was nice to sit on the patio and had a chance to read a good book. Now on to planning my 4th of July menu....

Happy Anniversary!

My husband and I have been married 5 years on June 28th! Time has flown by so fast and I can't believe it's been this long. I look forward to many more happy years with him!

We decided we would try out a new steak place called Perry's Steakhouse. The food was yummy as expected we started with escargot and a crab cake the I had the fillet of Oscar and my husband had a New York Strip. Since it was our anniversary they gave us a slice of white chocolate cheesecake to finish our evening and the table was covered in rose petals. Good thing we didn't eat all day and saved room for all that food!

We have a tradition that started at our wedding. The grooms cake was a chocolate cake with a cherry filling topped off with a butter cream icing and chocolate covered strawberries. Well at our wedding we did the cake cutting tasted the brides cake and then when it came for the grooms cake we just had a chocolate covered strawberry. No one saved us a piece so every year for our anniversary I order the grooms cake and we have the whole cake to ourselves. The butter cream is pure heaven! It's so light and whipped perfect yummy! We were too full from dinner so we had it the next day. Here's the inside:

So Happy Anniversary and I love you to my dearest husband you're more then a girl could ever ask for!

xoxo,

Allison

Quick and Easy Dinner

This week has been one of those crazy weeks and when we get home I have to find something to cook for dinner and have little time to do it. We had some leftover chicken tenders and while I'm sure it was enough to fill my husband and I up I decided to turn it into a salad to make it extra hardy. I've seen this on menus before as hot wings are the happening thing in restaurants so I decided to do my own version a while back and it seems to go over well with the hubby.

I start with tossing my lettuce with the dressing of choice. Ranch or Caesar is usually our favorite. Then I heat up the leftover chicken. (Chicken nuggets, grilled chicken or chicken any way you can think of can also be used instead.)

Grocery stores have plenty of sauces on the shelf, but for this meal I went with a hot wing sauce from one of our favorite wing places - Buffalo Wild Wings called Mango Habanero. This can be swapped for BBQ sauce as well. I cut up my chicken into bite size pieces and then coated them in the sauce.

Next I topped off my lettuce with the coated chicken and sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese and croutons. Yummy!

Spicy Buffalo Wild Wing Salad

lettuce
dressing

chicken

sauce of choice

Stuffed Mushrooms

Mushrooms is something I've never liked. I don't know what's wrong with me, everyone in my family likes them so why can't I? I have no problem cooking with them and for someone who doesn't eat them everyone says they were cooked perfect. Every once in a while I work up the nerve to eat one to see if my taste of changed. I can't even tell you why I dislike them, it's a combo of the flavor and texture of it I guess.

Here's my version of stuffed mushrooms. You can add the cheese on top or leave them plain. My recipe calls for 40 mushrooms, but I usually just buy 2 (8 ounce) cartons of the button mushrooms. Adjust everything accordingly and add what you like. In the past I've made some with sausage, some with rice, some with pecans, but the favorite seems to be keeping them simple as below.

STUFFED MUSHROOMS

40 mushrooms
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon season salt
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
¼ cup parmesan cheese
juice from one small lemon
few slices of mozzarella cheese if desired

Rinse mushrooms. Cut a tiny part off the end of the mushroom stems; throw away. Pull out the stems and save. Scoop out the insides of the mushrooms and put in a medium size pot. Chop up the stems and add to pot. On medium heat, add ½ cup butter and Italian seasoning. Stir until butter has melted. Mix in the bread crumbs. When blended stir in cheese and egg, continue to stir until well blended. Stuff mushrooms to the rim and place in two 8x8 inch glass baking dishes. Place dabs of butter from the remaining ½ cup around mushrooms in the pan. Pour lemon juice in the bottom of the pan where butter dabs are. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. If desired cut small squares of mozzarella cheese and add on top of mushrooms the last 5 min of baking to allow cheese to melt.

Yields 8 servings

Happy Father's Day!

I entered my dad in an essay contest and we got picked! This was a very nice surprise and I couldn't have asked for a better father's day gift.

http://cattlemensbbqsauce.com/FathersDay.aspx

Poached Catfish Fillets with Mushroom Herb Rice

So I thought I would kick off my new blog with a recipe that got me here in the first place. I had entered Redwood Creek Campfire cook off and was fortunate to meet the most pleasant competitors and most organized cook off I have been to ever. One of my competitors introduced me to a cooking contest website and since I've joined I have caught the bug to push harder and enter more contest. Many of the members have blogs documenting their travels through food so I thought I would do the same in attempt to stay a little more organized and share my thoughts on food.

Ok back to the food. This recipe was formed in collaboration with my father. I'll tell you more about him later he's my ultimate competition and a big influence in my culinary influence.

I know it seems overwhelming, but it's really not. This dish was done using a pot and a skillet and can easily be done on the stove top instead of a fire. I timed myself and including prep and cooking time to plating I hit 1 hour on the dot so it's not that timely of a dish. Hope you try it and ejoy it as much as we do. It won me runner up and they said it was the best wine pairing so it's one that I'm proud of.

Poached Catfish Fillets with Mushroom Herb Rice

Main Ingredients:
2 quarts water
4 tablespoons boiling Zatarans Crab and Crawfish Boil
1 cup Redwood Creek Sauvignon Blanc
2 lbs of catfish fillets
1 bag of boil and serve rice
3 slices of bacon
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
4 tablespoons of olive oil dipping sauce (the kind of dipping sauce used at Italian restaurants with the oil and mixed herbs)
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

Ingredients for the sauce:
4 ounces of butter
1 cup Redwood Creek Sauvignon Blanc
Juice from 2 lemons
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 teaspoon of teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Olive oil dipping sauce:
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
pinch of salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Garnish:
Jalapeño pepper bread
1 lemon cut into wedges and seeded
1 bundle of asparagus

Directions:
Bring the water and wine a boil in the Dutch oven. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the boil and serve rice. Boil for 7-10 minutes. Remove and add the crawfish boil and catfish. Poach until the catfish starts to flake at the tail end of fillet. Remove catfish and wrap in aluminum foil setting aside. Discard water from Dutch oven and wipe dry. Add diced bacon in the Dutch oven and fry until crisp; remove bacon and set aside. Add the mushrooms and olive oil to bacon grease stirring mushrooms until tender. Add drained rice and bacon back into mushroom mixture sprinkling on the Cajun seasoning and stirring through. Adjust seasoning to taste.

While preparing rice mixture; melt butter in small skillet. When butter is melted add Redwood Creek Sauvignon Blanc (reserving ¼ cup) and other ingredients except cornstarch. In a separate cup combine remaining wine and cornstarch mixing well with fork. When sauce begins to reach a simmer add cornstarch and wine mixture to thicken. Reduce heat and simmer till ready to serve. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Lightly grill jalapeño bread and asparagus to desired texture. Just before plating butter one side of bread if desired.

http://www.star-telegram.com/806/story/649183.html